News

Jasmine watched the usual pandemonium take place when P Diddy came to the UK

PUFFY came to Europe again last week to promote his music and his new group Diddy Dirty Money. Having worked on numerous occasions with the ‘bad boy for life’, I can tell you that he has a massive machine around him that ensures that he causes pandemonium wherever he goes.

Calls will be made to arrange model types who are prepared to wear next to nothing to flank him as paparazzi both real and ‘prepared’ flash those bulbs. Puffy’s bling will be ostentatious, his sunglasses will not be prized from his head and assistants will scurry around him whispering and hyperventilating to ensure the correct amount of gravitas is surrounding him. And of course, Puffy will be doused in a huge amount of Sean John fragrance and boast perfectly moisturised lips!

Did I ever tell you, a few years ago, we held up a shoot so Puff could summon his stylist to grab Vaseline for his lips, and insisted on having a mirror to check that every corner of his mouth was not dry before continuing? It used to make me laugh when I first noted the machine of fame at work, but now it’s simply a given that I enjoy observing.

Puff arrived in the morning on Eurostar from Paris and, as expected, caused chaos as he descended on London's St Pancras station with a pair of statuesque ladies either side of. He was later whisked off to the BBC to film

Jonathan Ross, where even more corridors were packed with men in sharp suits – you know how Diddy does!

He then topped off his London visit by partying the night away at London's Whiskey Mist nightclub and was joined by Drake, M.I.A and Kelly Rowland, as well as the usual wanabees, hoping to get lucky for the night.

The music stars were all clearly having a blast as they ordered over £20,000 worth of the infamous gold bottles of Armand de Brignac champagne – the current top champers of choice, with Dom P and Cristal having been kicked to the curb.

Of course, with all the half naked ladies in attendance, champers flowing and DJ Manny Norte and DJ Nikki on the decks, it wasn't long before Diddy started dancing on the table and showing London clubbers what partying is all about!

I’ve gotta hand it to him, his parties are always on another level. From his infamous white parties (girl on girls in the water); his crazier than crazy MTV Awards parties (naked painted girls handing out bottles); and his parties on private jets (hip-hop quiz on large beds at 40,000 feet in the air), Sean Combs is a party guru!

Giving back to the community

I’M proud to say I recently did my bit for the community when I helped organise the first ever Paddington Festival. I’m a west Londoner, born and bred, and so when I was approached to help put together the line up, I jumped at the chance.

I called my mates, presenter Kat and music artists Bashy and Akala to jump onstage, and alongside them was a local dance group called Hypnotik and local MC Cortex. Kat had the crowd entertained all day whilst the acts did their thing, and thankfully, the weather was nice.

Bashy and Akala were truly inspiring to the young audience. Their intelligence, lyrical dexterity and not-even-trying-to-be-fly natural swag oozes out in bundles. Even the older people in the audience sat up and paid attention to them.

In addition, young kids had their faces painted and a lot of Caribbean and African food was going around. At one point, the festival bigwigs decided to officially launch the event by having Kat release a load of helium balloons into the sky. The joke was that the balloons were tied to the roof of the stage and Kat had to climb up there to cut them off! Health and safety!

Here come the girls…

THIS past fortnight, I finally saw Sex and the City 2 with seven of my girlfriends. We had purposely avoided watching it, until one of us returned from L.A. so we could all watch it together.

So, one sunny lunchtime, went along to Odeon in Marble Arch and ended up having a private screening, as not one other person was there! We were all dressed as our favourite Sex and the City character complete with cute frocks, corsages and vertiginous heels. After the film, we made a real day of it, having lunch in Mayfair where we knocked back cocktails, and talked about shoes and men!

Jasmine Dotiwala is a TV producer, director and broadcast journalist. Email her at jasmine@hiphop.com

Published: 21 June 2010
Issue: 1428

site comments powered by Disqus